Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations

Both GOP And Democrats Seek Changes To Health Law, But Can They Find Common Ground?

Pressure from insurers who may leave the health law's marketplaces could spur lawmakers to consider updates to the law.

The Wall Street Journal:
Rising Insurance Premiums Boost Talk Of Changes To Affordable Care Act
Insurer defections and rising premiums in the individual insurance market are spurring Democrats and Republicans alike to talk about changes to the 2010 Affordable Care Act. For now, the conversations are largely aimed at their party’s base. President Barack Obama led his party’s cry on Thursday with suggestions that would further entrench the law, including the addition of a government-run health plan in parts of the country with limited competition. GOP lawmakers have continued to call for gutting the law, including proposals to waive its penalties for people who forgo coverage in areas with limited insurance options. In each of these proposals, both sides have been largely talking past one another. Come January, they will have to talk to each other instead. (Radnofsky, 10/21)

In other national health care news —

The Washington Post:
Investigation: The DEA Slowed Enforcement While The Opioid Epidemic Grew Out Of Control
A decade ago, the Drug ­Enforcement Administration launched an aggressive campaign to curb a rising opioid epidemic that was claiming thousands of American lives each year. The DEA began to target wholesale companies that distributed hundreds of millions of highly addictive pills to the corrupt pharmacies and pill mills that illegally sold the drugs for street use. Leading the campaign was the agency’s Office of Diversion Control, whose investigators around the country began filing civil cases against the distributors, issuing orders to immediately suspend the flow of drugs and generating large fines. But the industry fought back. (Bernstein and Higham, 10/22)

The Washington Post:
How Drugs Intended For Patients Ended Up In The Hands Of Illegal Users: ‘No One Was Doing Their Job’
For 10 years, the government waged a behind-the-scenes war against pharmaceutical companies that hardly anyone knows: wholesale distributors of prescription narcotics that ship drugs from manufacturers to consumers. The Drug Enforcement Administration targeted these middlemen for a simple reason. If the agency could force the companies to police their own drug shipments, it could keep millions of pills out of the hands of abusers and dealers. That would be much more effective than fighting “diversion” of legal painkillers at each drugstore and pain clinic. (Bernstein, Fallis and Higham, 10/22)

The New York Times:
The VSED Exit: A Way To Speed Up Dying, Without Asking Permission
At 91, Ms. Greenfield told her family she was ready to die. ... Then her son-in-law, a family physician who had written such prescriptions for other patients, explained the somewhat involved process: oral and written requests, a waiting period, two physicians’ assent. “I don’t have time for that,” Ms. Greenfield objected. “I’m just going to stop eating and drinking.” In end-of-life circles, this option is called VSED, for voluntarily stopping eating and drinking. It causes death by dehydration, usually within seven to 14 days. (Span, 10/21)

The New York Times:
What 130 Of The Worst Shootings Say About Guns In America
After nearly two decades of expanding legal access to firearms, a succession of horrific shootings like Mr. Houser’s have refocused attention on gun control. Since the 2012 massacre of 26 elementary school children and teachers in Newtown, Conn., gun control advocates have scored some significant victories in state legislatures. Nationwide, several polls suggest that public opinion has shifted markedly in favor of stricter gun laws. And for the first time since Al Gore called for tighter firearm restrictions in his losing 2000 campaign, gun control is a top-level issue in the presidential contest, as well as in two close Senate races and four state ballot initiatives. (LaFraniere and Palmer, 10/21)

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